Tag: summer activities

Remember summer brain? That mental phenomenon where all the lessons learned during the school year slip away? And then bam. It’s back to school and our poor kids get a rude awakening as they try to get their brain back into gear after two to three months of lounging on the couch, bleaching their hair with sun and chlorine, and watching too much screen time after wearing their parents down.

So, what’s a parent to do? How do we create an epic summer for our kids while also stoking their brain with undercover learning? I asked my husband who is an educator in early elementary. His answer? Trick em’ into learning. That’s right, engage in some good natured trickery by mixing fun activities, laced with learning, into your child’s lazy summer days. But, because I can only come up with about three such activities on my own, I set out to find a resource – beyond my much beloved Pinterest – that would make things easy for me.

Enter, Education.com, a website I’m not being paid to promote – I just think it’s really helpful. While there’s an endless supply of learning resources on the site, all organized by age, my fave section is the activities. I checked off the preschool box and viola, I was met with enough activities to last all summer.

My son’s favorites have been making a city out of cereal boxes – an activity that can promote creativity and offers an opportunity to learn about recycling – and crafting “community helpers” out of paper bags, and other simple supplies, conveying the message that there are numerous types of people that keep the cogs of a community turning (this led to a one-hour convo about whose job it is to deal with all the poop, and if there is a poop fairy. Bless you sewage treatment plant operators.)

The summer is long, so long – especially when you have the task of keeping a preschooler, with an attention span shorter than the nail on their chubby little pinky finger, entertained and educated. Oy vey.

My little nugget has been especially interested in colors lately, so, the following activity from Education.com helped us splash some learning cloaked in fun onto our summer.

(Hudson enjoys his custom made flash cards so much he takes them on road trips and pairs the colors with passing vechicles, road signs, plants, or random food particles scattered throughout our car.)

What You Need:

Card stock or other sturdy paper (index cards work well too)

Scissors

Markers in a rainbow of colors

What You Do:

Begin by talking about color with your child, using the markers as a guide. Take each marker out of the package one at a time and ask him to name the colors as you go along.

Cut the card stock into 5″ x 7″ rectangles. If you’re using index cards, move on to step 3.

Have your child draw a picture of a flower, plant, or other spring thing on the front of each card, using only one color for each card.

Now turn each card over and write the name of the color you used on that card on the back using the same color marker. For some handwriting practice, try writing the words lightly in pencil first, then having her trace over the letters in marker.

Now it’s time to play! Take the cards outside. Choose one card and ask your child to name the color, then turn the card over to reveal the color word.

Now look around outside and find something natural (like a tree or flower) that’s the same color as the card.

Once you’ve found something, turn to your child and say, “I spy something with my eye that is the color_____”. Encourage him to try and find the object you chose. Give him descriptive word clues to help point him in the right direction. If he guesses another object that is the right color, let him know that his pick is also correct.

Continue playing by repeating steps 5-7 for the rest of the color cards. Once he finds all the colors, he wins!

During the course of the game, invite your child to select unique adjectives to describe each color. Encourage him to get creative with his word choices and use his imagination 🙂

It’s almost summertime and the livin’ will be easy. Oh wait, you’re a parent. Never mind, the livin’ is about to get chaotic — but chaos can be fun, and educational.

While you’ve spent the past nine-ish months supporting the expansion of your child’s mental, physical, and social development, you haven’t been doing it alone (if they go to school). You’ve had assistance from teachers, coaches, and all the other people that help kids grow into bigger kids. But soon, the majority of this “fostering of development” will fall on your shoulders … and hands, and heart, and feet …oh heck, every last drop of you will be called upon this summer.

While camps and other such organized activities handled by other responsible adults (or teenagers) were sent down from the parenting heavens to sneak learning (and free time for you!) into your kid’s summer, you’ll likely be met with “ugh, mom” if you suggest activities that even have a whiff of education.